Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law March 10, 2010 For most of the history of Anglo-American copyright law, copyright was an opt-in system: Authors had to jump through certain regulatory hoops if they wanted to prevent others from copying their works without consent.  These threshold formalities included registering their works with a [...]

Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law January 12, 2010 2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the Statute of Anne, the English legislation that ushered in the modern era of copyright law.  The Statute of Anne is celebrated for a number of reasons, and perhaps foremost among them is its rejection of copyright [...]

Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law December 22, 2009 2010 marks the 300th anniversary of the Statute of Anne, the English legislation that ushered in the modern era of copyright law.  The Statute of Anne is celebrated for a number of reasons, and perhaps foremost among them is its rejection of copyright [...]

Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law October 7, 2009 People who study copyright law for a living must frequently endure the disappointment of seeing an interesting case settle out of court.  For example, lurking behind the current Google Books controversy is a fascinating fair use argument – but if the proposed settlement [...]

Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond July 29, 2009 In this “IP Viewpoints” post, I hope to combine two Uncontroversial Premises to reach a Counterintuitive Conclusion about the role that intellectual property can play in the regulation of innovation. First Uncontroversial Premise: IP is a useful tool for creating incentives to innovate, but too much [...]

Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law May 1, 2009 Given a choice, which would you prefer:  A world in which it is easier to encrypt information than to decrypt it?  A world in which decryption is easier than encryption?  A world in which the two stand in a cost/benefit equipoise? When the [...]

Prof. Jim Gibson, University of Richmond March 11, 2009 A number of copyright controversies have caught the public’s eye this year — e.g., the lawsuit over the AP photo of Barak Obama, the feud between Coldplay and Joe Satriani, the debate about Facebook’s policies toward the intellectual property of its users.  Yet these disputes, fascinating [...]